


Coping Mechanisms

by ghibliterritory



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bill died instead of Georgie, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 14:58:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12914328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghibliterritory/pseuds/ghibliterritory
Summary: In which Georgie Denrbough survived, but at the cost of his best friend.





	Coping Mechanisms

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize in advance because this is really all over the place.

Georgie swore he never felt as much joy in his whole life as he did when he got to play with a boat. The ones that Bill made him were special, masterpieces of paper that could go on for miles. And in October of 1988, this was no different. The rain was perfect. The boat was perfect. And golly, was he excited when it was time to run out and watch it sail.

 

Being interrupted in this certainly wasn’t Georgie’s plan. Nor was it his plan to meet a man in the sewers, holding his boat with a tempting smile and bright blue eyes. Georgie didn’t know how long he stayed talking to him. But, when he hesitated to take the boat, and the man’s eyes turned yellow, he decided that was enough, getting up and sprinting down the wet streets and away from the snarling in the sewer.

 

Bill, being the worried brother he was, noticed how late his brother was staying out. It didn’t take long to let a boat float down the streets. With a frown, and several checks on the long discarded walkie talkie, each time getting no answer, he pulls on his clothes and stomps out into the rain, ignoring the way his cough seemed only to get worse.

 

He trudged through Derry, searching high and low for that dumb yellow rain coat. He swore he kept seeing it from the corner of his eye. Rain dripped onto his head as he moved through trees to the quarry, avoiding stepping into the water. Yellow flashed across his vision again, towards one of the sewer entrances. The rain got harder, and he swore he heard lightning. Bill called out to Georgie. He was met with silence. ‘Don’t mess around, mom’ll have a bird,’ he continued while stepping into the sewer. The sight of the S.S. Georgie, crumpled and dirty, came into his view. Bill picked it up and tried to ignore a weird gut feeling.

 

Still, he continued, hearing Georgie splash around and call to him. This wasn’t the place to play. Finally, it seemed the sewers ended in an intersection of large pipes. Georgie stood center, back towards Bill, who sighed. He asked what he was doing there, hating his stutter. Georgie slowly turned. And, much to Bill’s horror, he learned it wasn’t his brother. Georgie’s face wasn’t pale, and veiny. His eyes weren’t golden. And he didn’t laugh like that.

 

It was the last thing Bill saw.

 

Not even an hour later, Georgie hopped out of Mr. Keene’s car, thanking him for the ride home. He’d been lost, but he was lucky to catch the owner of the drug store on his way out of work. He trotted up the steps to his home, feeling down. He’d lost his boat. He’d lost his walkie talkie. Now, he had to go tell Bill about it- and the clown. But when he got in there, there was no sign of his brother. No water running in the bathroom, or lump on his bed. Georgie asked his mother where he’d gone, to which she shrugged.

 

Oh well. Maybe he went to hang out with Richie. He should be back before dinner.

 

Georgie sat in wait. One hour passed. Then another, and another, and yet another. The next day came, and there was still no sign of his brother. His mother called the police station.

 

This went on for a week. Calling and waiting. Almost three days after, Georgie sat on Bill’s bed late at night, surrounded by different art supplies and photos of his brother. He tried not to cry, afraid of messing up the messily written “HAVE YOU SEEN ME” at the top of the paper. It was hard, though, and Georgie held a picture of his brother tight in his hands for the rest of the night. He tucked it into his pocket the next morning. 

 

Bill’s friends didn’t come over anymore, which made him sad. It hurt to see them react. Eddie became more nervous, barely leaving his own house. Richie had police take him out of school one day for a vandalism. Stan was quiet, avoidant of eye contact. They weren’t the same. But Georgie knew what they knew. What happened to Bill wasn’t just chance. It couldn’t be. And Georgie, the poor kid, was starting to think about the clown he saw again. Did he have something to do with this?

 

More kids disappeared, and he determined that yes, this had to be his doing. What else could it be? So he called Bill’s old friends, and convinced them to come help him prove this. They agreed- but he heard some teasing tone when they said yes. Like it was all a joke. It made Georgie sick.

 

They gathered together on a warm summer day, and searched through the quarry water and the sewer entrance. There was nothing particularly damning, except a shoe belonging to one of the girls that they had a class with. Other than that, nothing- except a rather dramatic entrance of a boy named Ben, all cut up, and the help with medical supplies from a girl named Beverly, who Richie had to bite his lip to avoid talking about. Georgie couldn’t hear all that stuff. Time passed as he dragged them to search as well, watching all the older kids make friends and invite another boy into the group after a very fun, but dangerous fight with the local bully. None of them talked about Bill. Only three of them knew him.

 

But secrets revealed themselves. Scary images and encounters. Monsters, bullies, and sewers. Georgie tried so hard to show them how he connected the dots- but they all brushed it off as nothing for a long time. The clown was just to cope, he’d heard Stan say while he, Mike, and Eddie lagged behind the group. Georgie didn’t want to face the fact that Bill might have run away, or maybe Bowers just went too far. He didn’t look at Stan for the rest of the day. It wasn’t true. He was taken, he might even be dead- and it was no one’s fault but that clown’s, and his own, but that was only for him to know.

 

They couldn’t hold themselves together if they tried, these kids. They all agreed that listening to Georgie was no fun. That it was childish. But the day that Georgie rode off on his bike to the crack house, and they all learned the truth- of how Georgie was right, how they never believed him, and how they couldn’t keep listening- it was especially messy. Eddie was hurt, so was Ben. Richie was angry. Stan shook in his spot, while Beverly and Mike watched in confusion and fear for each other. They all went off to leave Georgie standing in the middle of the street by himself, holding back tears once again as the words Richie said rang through his head.

 

He was just a kid, who was gonna get them all killed.

 

And he was right. Georgie couldn’t risk their lives too. He knew what he had to do.

 

Climbing into the sewers was difficult, since he didn’t have the upper body strength that the others did. But he made it, lowering himself down into the wet, smelly, dark space. He trudged through with only a flashlight. He saw the S.S. Georgie in the water. Then his walkie talkie. He thought he saw the lanky figure of his brother, and he kept going until he was lead into a large space with a tower of items, and bodies in the air. His eyes were stuck, when he heard the worried screaming of his name from down the tunnel. Out came Richie, Beverly, Ben, and everyone else behind them. They scolded him, saying how dangerous it was to be there alone, and what was he thinking? Georgie opened his mouth to explain the harsh thoughts in his head about it, but was stopped by another sound. Bill’s voice. He turned, seeing his brother with dirt on his face, and a stump for an arm.

 

“I missed you, Georgie.” He said, clear as day. “I looked everywhere for you. I was so scared. Why didn’t you come for me sooner?”

 

Georgie cried. “I tried. I really did, Billy.”

 

“Let’s go home, Georgie.”

 

The brothers shared an embrace, all of the other children watched. All of a sudden, Georgie’s flashlight hit the back of Bill’s head, erupting a yell from the elder Denbrough. Georgie stepped back with fresh tears.

 

“You aren’t my brother.”

 

His form shifted into that of the same clown he’d escaped before, grinning wickedly at them all. His arms wrapped fast around the child, holding him tight and threatening his life without having to speak. Georgie wasn’t scared. He shook, staring at the others with wide eyes. But he was not scared. They seemed to know this. And Richie, the friend he was, made the first move to get Georgie away. And so, they fought. Attacking him, screaming and cursing as he seemed resistant to every blow. Until he was backed into a corner, stuttering and muttered something unintelligible to Georgie. The monster was more scared than he ever was.

 

He got away before they could finish him. Georgie tried to tell himself that it was dead, but the words felt wrong in his head. The kids didn’t talk again. Georgie went home and lived with the loss of his brother.

 

And when 27 years came around, he’d be ready.


End file.
